Monday, January 5, 2015

The Heptameron

The Heptameron is a collection of stories attributed to Magurite de Navarre(sister to Francois I of France). Ten people take refuge from floods in a monastery, and to amuse themselves they take turns telling different tales. There were suppose to be one hundred stories told over ten days to complete the collection. We only make it to day seven and story seventy-seven. The author died before completing the tales.

Often these tales are compared to Chaucer's Cantebury Tales or Boccaccio's The Decameron. The set up is similar, a group of people tell stories, but I did not prefer The Heptameron as much as The Cantebury Tales, although I enjoyed reading both of them. I have yet to read all of The Decameron, so I will not say anything about that comparison.

I found these tales to be a little repetitive, and after the first couple days of stories, I was not as interested in some of the tales as I would have been if they were more unique from the other tales. There are some interesting things to be learned about the time period, and what people might have been thinking about religion, priests, sexuality, relationships, and much more. I did enjoy the sparring of the characters as they used stories to reinforce their opinions.

If you liked reading The Cantebury Tales or The Decameron, I would recommend reading this book.

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About Me

I have my BA in History, and I minored in History of Art and Museum Studies. I like to cook, travel, and read. I love to share what I am reading, and help other people find books they are interested in. I hope you find some books you like here, and will share your thoughts on the books I review.